Walker shot at Dunleavy for boosting governor’s office budget is misleading, Dunleavy spokesman says

Former Gov. Bill Walker, who hopes to get his old job back, fired some shots at current Gov. Mike Dunleavy over his budget actions.

In a press release Walker said Dunleavy increased the budget for his own office in the state Fiscal Year 2023 while cutting $400 million from other state programs through vetoes.

That’s technically true but misleading, Dunleavy spokesman Jeff Turner said. “The Legislature took $5 million … and dropped it in the Governor’s office budget,” he said. Dunleavy did not ask for the money.

What happened was complicated. The money is actually for certain central state government services provided by the Department of Administration and Department of Transportation and Public Facilities but was put by the Legislature into the governor’s office so it could be managed by the Office of Management and Budget, a part of the Office of the Governor, according to Cheri Lowenstein, administrative director for the Office of the Governor.

The money, “is more accurately reported in ‘statewide costs”’ which are reported separately outside of any agency budgets,” Lowenstein said.

“However, due to actions taken by the (Legislature’s) finance committees it is reflected in the Office of the Governor in the appropriations bill. This is not a cost incurred by the Office of the Governor” she said.

Turner said, “Our Office of Management and Budget director (Neil Steininger) explained to the finance committees that it was not appropriate, but they did it anyway. You will have to ask the four co-chairs (of the finance committees) why they did that,” he said.